How much disk space is needed for MSSQL Backup?

[jroyce1]

I have an MDF file that is 109GB. I only have 89GB of free disk space. My attempted backup fails with a "not enough disk space" error. Does anyone now what the average disk space required for a backup is? That is what percentage of the MDF file? 100%, 75%, etc. I am struggling to make enough space available. Any advice would be appreciated.

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[pjw001]

100% (or possibly more) is required.

The backup does nothing clever to save disk space. Its objective to work securely and quickly.

 

[jroyce1]

Ok, so I've freed up 50GB of space in my database and even after running dbcc shrinkfile (dbname,30000) the database file still does not shrink! In properties of the database in Enterprise Mgr it shows I have these 50GB of unused space. How do I get the DB to actually shrink so I can back it up?

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[jroyce1]

After researching this a bit further I found out that the cause of the database file not shrinking was due to having another computer with an open SQL Query window open. Having open connections to the database prevented the database action from being performed.

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